These butterflies may be little, but wow, they can dance. Trying to photograph this guy with his nonstop and erratic flight had me reaching for some dramamine. It's the cabbage white, Pieris rapae, and when it's not looking for nectar, it's looking for the cruciferous veggies in your garden. The female seeks out cabbage, collards, kale, radish and other such plants for egg laying. A neat looking bullet-like egg (just a mere millimeter) is laid singly, usually on the underside of the leaf. Within a week it hatches, and then, let the feasting begin. The fuzzy green caterpillars have a voracious appetite, and gnaw irregularly-shaped holes in your once-beautiful greens. After several molts, they form a chrysalis about 3/4 of an inch long. In a week or two, out pops the adult. Males differ from females in having only one black dot in the center of their forewings; females have two. They're just about and inch and a half, and have a life span of just around three weeks, but they remind me - when you get the choice to sit it out or dance, dance.

The caterpillar, sometimes called the Cabbage Worm, has a velvety appearance due to the many small hairs covering its body. Photo: James Lindsey at Ecology of Commanster [CC-BY-SA-2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5), via Wikimedia Commons

About the blogger: Jeanne Lindgren is a science teacher and nature enthusiast. She has taught and traveled throughout Asia and Europe and now makes her home in Honolulu. She welcomes any comments, corrections, questions or compliments on her nature journal, and wishes all who visit here many great nature experiences. Happy trails.